Thou shalt have one God only; who Would tax himself to worship two? God's image nowhere shalt thou see, Save haply in the currency: Swear not at all; since for thy curse Thine enemy is not the worse: At church on Sunday to attend Will help to keep the world thy friend: Honor thy parents; that is, all From whom promotion may befall: Thou shalt not kill; but needst not strive Officiously to keep alive: Adultery it is not fit Or safe, for women, to commit: Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat, When 'tis so lucrative to cheat: False witness not to bear be strict; And cautious, ere you contradict. Thou shalt not covet; but tradition Sanctions the keenest competition.

I first came across that couplet as a "filler" in a medical journal while I was wrestling with the issue of futile medical care in the ICU, keeping patients' bodies breathing on a ventilator when their functions were gone, not guaranteed irretrievablly lost but with a 99.9+ % probability of no recovery at all, much less meaningful recovery. Was this sustaining life, or just painfully prolonging the dying? After years of practice I still don't have a satisfactory answer. That snippet seemed to encapsulate the issue....

It took me a long time to track down and identify the quote -- and see that it's incredibly cynical, and painful, and dismissive, and indeed not sensitive at all. Written in the 1850s by a 30-odd-year-old !

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